How to Dress the New (Trimmer!) Gucci Mane

A chat with the rapper’s stylist, Shun Melson, about Gucci’s weight loss and his style inspiration: Scott Disick.

Shun Melson first met Gucci Mane 11 years ago on the set of a music video for her former client, the late Shawty Lo, to which Gucci rolled up in a canary yellow Ferrari. Not long after, his then manager, Debbie Antney (Waka Flocka Flame’s mom), suggested Melson take a shot at dressing him for the BET Hip Hop Awards. Antney armed her with a big box of sneakers and a few words of warning: “He's a kooky man.”

Melson nailed it, and has been charged with keeping Gucci looking fresh ever since. Gucci Mane has always dressed with a certain flair—who can forget that snow white waterfall fur?—and Melson has been instrumental in that. “He's the best person to shop for, so it's fun,” she said, describing the delightful chore that is styling Gucci over the phone from her home in Atlanta. “When I see stuff in stores, even if I'm shopping for another client, if I see something that's crazy and funky, I go ahead and grab it because I know he's going to be so excited about it.”

She has had to step things up considerably, however, since he walked free last May after serving three years in a federal penitentiary—stone sober, serious about his workout regimen, and down some eight pant sizes. “He wants to change clothes, like, two to three times a day, putting on full outfits, belt, and everything, even when he’s in the house,” Melson said, laughing, recalling his habit of broadcasting his high-fashion looks via social media before he was released from house arrest last month. “I went and picked up his cleaners yesterday, and I'm like, 'What are all these dirty clothes come from? Where have you been?' [And he says,] 'I've been on Snapchat!'”

Now he's back in the roads, doing press for his new album, Woptober, and the next few months, Melson promises, are “going to be outrageous.”

GQ: Were you surprised to see Gucci Mane so trim? How has that impacted your job?Shun Melson: I had started shopping for him a year before he got out of jail. He was putting money in my account, and I had probably bought fifteen designer suits, and everything I had bought him was way too big! I had no idea he was going to be so small. I'd never known him to be under a size 40, 42 until this year. Back then, I couldn't get him all the designers I can get him now. He's always loved fashion, but the only things I could get him was nice glasses and nice shoes. Even with his belts, I used to buy two belts and have them cut and put together because he couldn't find belts to fit his waist, because he was on lean so his stomach was huge.

“The only person I’ve heard him reference whose style he loved is Scott from the Kardashians.”

But he is the most confident guy ever. If there was a certain shirt that couldn't button, he was like, "Well, let's just wear it open." It might be a $600 shirt that we couldn't even button, but he never felt self-conscious about anything. He always wanted designer stuff, and [his weight] never stopped him. There's a lot of good stuff [in his wardrobe from before he went to jail] that we're cutting to get tailored to him. He's a 36 pants now, and he's a size large shirt—and that's a European-cut shirt.

What is he into right now?
We definitely want to do something a little more grown-man style, like nice cashmere sweaters. He wants to start incorporating slacks. He's in charge, he's not in the streets, robbing and doing drugs. Of course, [his fans] still love the Street Gucci also, but it's going to be boss-level: He's going to have his jewelry on with that thousand-dollar cashmere sweater. It's still Gucci, but mixed with high fashion, because he'll never lose that.

It's hard to imagine Gucci in slacks.
Right, exactly. He wants to keep 'em guessing. He's like, “I don't want to have to wear a sneaker every time, I want more of that driver-style shoe or that suede loafer shoe.” So I got him a pair of crazy tartan plaid Gucci loafers, and one of them has a lip on one side and eyes on the other side, and I think those are his favorite shoes right now.

Style in hip-hop changed so much in the three years Gucci was gone: Kanye West is designing full collections for Adidas, Young Thug is slaying in haute couture dresses. Do you feel pressure to keep up with the trends?
I definitely don't want him to jump on the bandwagon with too many trends. I don't want him to look like he's trying to look just like Fetty Wap. I don't want him to look like the rappers that he's raising, I want him to be totally different.

I don't want him to be concerned about the trends that they're doing. I want to see him more in boss mode, I want to see him in those timeless pieces—the YSL trench, that RL Purple Label pinstripe suit with a Ferragamo shoe. Every now and then you might see him on Snapchat with a nice extended tee and some distressed jeans, but that's about as trendy as I want to take him. I want to take him to a more grown-man style where, if we want to pull that coat out five years from now, it will still work. Whereas that extended tee or those lounge pants or those skinny, skinny jeans, you don't want to pull those out five, 10 years from now.

He doesn't want to be a clone.
Never. The only person I've heard him reference whose style he loved is Scott from the Kardashians. I could totally see it! When I see some of the pictures of Scott, he's in those suits and shades and he's jumping out of a Lamborghini, and I can so see Gucci doing that. I think he loves Scott's confidence. He's never referenced another rapper like, “Oh, I love how Future or Drake looks.” Never since I've known him. Scott is the name I've ever heard him reference.

What can we expect from his fall look?
For the fall, I want him to dress it up, to have on distressed jeans with a lace-up boot. We're definitely going for more of a boot look than having a sneaker with everything. And the nice coats. I definitely want to have more peacoats, more trench coats; I don't want him wearing the leather jackets like all the other rappers do.

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